Wednesday, February 7, 2007

School re-entry Policy

By Waguma Akelle

Despite the school re-entry policy existing in Kenya, the factors that hinder young girls from accessing it have not been pursued yet, leading to several drop out cases for girls with unwanted pregnancies.

What this leads to is the fact that many young girls will continue to either get married off at early ages or acquire casual jobs that can barely support them
The end result therefore is a cycle of poverty and denied opportunities for both the mother and child.

At 20 years old, Liz Mecha a house girl in Komarock estate, Nairobi, says that she would have been an engineer or even a teacher.

But that was not to be; she got pregnant in standard seven and had to drop out of school.

Her dreams of ever going back to school were watered down by her father, who had strong beliefs that she would get pregnant again and that would have been a waste of the meager resources that they had.

“As a single parent, I have to work hard to make sure that my little girl gets all that she deserves, because there will never be any other chance for me to get back to class, therefore the little I earn is all that she has,” she says.

Esther Mutheka also bears the same story, in standard six, still very naive and timid, her body started changing, little did she know that she was pregnant and had to drop out of school.

Also a house girl in Komarock estate, Mutheka says that it does not cross her mind to go back to school.

“I am too old at that, besides who will take care of my little one, she is the one who needs that schooling now not me,” she says.

The father of the baby, she says, was her class teacher. She learned later that he was transferred to a neighboring school soon after the head teacher learnt that he had impregnated her.

An unplanned pregnancy could mean shame for the family, an end to the girl’s education and rejection by the baby’s father.

The school re-entry policy was launched by the ministry of education in 1995 and stipulates that after delivery, the girl can go back to school; not necessarily the same school but somewhere within the district, says Steven Karaba, Director of basic education in the ministry of education.

Karaba says that there is need to revise the policy so that it addresses the head teachers and teachers and the measures to be taken when the administration does not re admit the girls, as it is currently missing from the policy.

According to a research commissioned by Action Aid Kenya, 76 percent of girls dropped out of school, of which 12 percent got married while nothing happened to the 32 percent of teachers who were recorded to have been responsible.

From these statistics, it is evident that the victims fared off worse than the perpetrators who as in the case of teachers, got off lightly by either being demoted or being transferred to other schools.

In some cases, as indicated in the report, young girls ended their lives due to unsafe abortions or during delivery.

Besides teachers, the report indicates that 43 percent of the girls were impregnated by fellow classmates and others by outsiders.

Clearly, prevention is better than cure in these instances, says, Rosemary Muganda the executive director of Center for adolescents study.

She says that young girls continue to drop out because they lack information, and that they are still not empowered.

The early onset of sexual activity, combined with a lack of awareness about reproductive health, appears to be creating the conditions for teenage pregnancy.

Muganda adds that, “yes they need to be given a chance; to come back to school, but the ministry of education has to do something to empower these girls.

Dr Sara Ruto, a lecturer at Kenyatta University confirms that there is a long list of female school drop-outs. In the long-term this situation hampers the benefits to society were these young girls to remain in school longer.

She adds that more can be done with the re-entry policy for school-girl mothers: “While it is good, more support systems are needed to enhance its efficacy and ability to reach out to needy girls.”

This form of sexual violence has the most adverse effects. Although the emotional and psychological disturbances may go unnoticed, the most obvious sign is pregnancy. The latter implies that sexual violence carries a bigger impact for girls as opposed to boys.

“Within the school environment, teacher-girl sex mainly occurs in the teacher’s house after evening preps,” adds Ruto.

She says that teachers who impregnate their pupils are still viewed socially as a better catch for their daughters by the parents.

While other perpetrators of sexual crimes against children will get away by making a pay-off to the affected families and the case ends behind closed doors.

Even as Universal Primary Education (UPE) tries to ensure that all Kenyan children eligible for primary schooling have opportunity to enroll and remain in school, to learn and acquire basic education and skills training, the re-entry policy needs to be reinforced.

Furthermore, there are many socio-economic benefits to delaying early childbearing with better opportunities to improved education, avoidance of repetition, reduction of drop-out rates and an increased chance to acquire skills and knowledge for the girl child and her family’s future life.

Young women with low levels of education and a poor economic state often experience restricted ability and motivation to regulate their fertility, resulting in higher rates of early pregnancy.

The cycle is further perpetuated as young women who are in school are forced to discontinue their education when they become pregnant, thereby greatly restricting their economic opportunities.

In Jamaica adolescent pregnancy has long been a serious concern. In 1977 the proportion of births to teen-age mothers rose to 31% of all births, often following a pattern of 3-4 children before the age of 20.

Since 1977 the Women’s Center of Jamaica Foundation started a quality program with the objective of motivating young mothers to choose education instead of continuous motherhood. They have since helped over 22,000 mothers return to the school system.

The key point since then has seen a higher enrollment of female children into the school system and this was later reinforced by the millennium development goals.

The target is 2015, to ensure that children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.

More girls are enrolling into schools, but what can the government and communities do to make sure that these girls remain within the schools?

Ruto asserts that the re-entry vision should be made workable. “There is a need for a gender analysis too, to understand the issues that affect the girls, and in terms of access a lot has been achieved but the gender gap has not been closed,” she adds.

“Unless we also address the issue of patriarchy and the role of power decisions, the vision to keep the girls in school will not be seen,” says Ruto.

Ends

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Shinning up Our Dreams

This is to my friends out there, both known and unknown, but mostly to those close to my heart-
Judy Waguma

Our responsibility is to prepare.Our responsibility is to believe.Better yet, our responsibility is to muster the courage to move forward in faith by the help of friends.

With Faith and determination that we can make it, then we have to trust the Guy upstairs to do his work, since it is our Fathers place to know the time and the season of our blossoming and success.

Ours must be the daily ritual of watching for our moment to come.We must be ready when the spotlight focuses on us ......and our moment will come.

What of missed opportunities?What of past disasters?What of past failures ?

Those are in the past;leave them there.They are closed doors, look to the open ones.The problem we constanlty have is that we dwell so much on the closed doors that we fail to see another door opening.

Born blind,Heller Keller, puts it more clearly,'When one door to happiness closses, another door always open,but we often stand and look so long at the door that closes we fail to see the door that opens'

The real challenge of life is to live in the now and to plan for the future.We must look up.

Our job is to stop whining and start shinning .

And as Churchill also told his comrades in the midst of world war II, "Lift up your hearts and All will come right"

Dr Benjamin Hays, son of former slave, and a native of Georgian continually challenged his students with these words, "It must be borne in the mind that the tragedy in life does not lie in not reaching your goal.The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.
It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream at all.
It isn't a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture.
It isn't a disgrace not to reach for the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for.
Not failure, but to aim low is a sin"

Ours is not to cry over spilt milk.Ours is to milk the most from everyday and aim high in the future.

Dr Robert Schuller also adds, "Set your goals by your hopes-rather than your hurts"

We can go for the max in our lives if we are determined to turn our scars into Stars!

Monday, February 5, 2007

Gender, power relations and Human right

By Waguma Judy

The informal slogan of the Decade of Women became “Women do two-thirds of the world's work, receive 10 percent of the world's income and own 1 percent of the means of production.”



The gender commission of Kenya now calls for a formal recognition that women rights are human rights and that they apply to all fundamental freedoms.

Women's rights have not been observed in some countries as much as expected; in some places claims have been made that women's rights would be respected more, yet policies are sometimes not changed enough -- or at all, thus still undermining the rights of women.

Up to date a woman cannot be allowed to travel overseas with their children without the husband’s consent, says Dr Jacinta Muteshi, chairperson, national commission on gender and development.

Dr Muteshi says that women being the majority of Kenyans still live under the poverty line and some of these laws have had persistent and substantial inequalities on women.

Furthermore she says that women are still hugely affected by the social cultural values and practices that reinforce the unequal status between women and men.

The increasing incidences of violence against women, under-representation of women in key decision making, in public arena, parliament, local authorities and the burden of maternal mortality also indicate that governments are not living up to their promises.

Women rights it is said, is human rights and therefore every woman is entitled to it.

Kenya for instance has ratified the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDWA) that commits to incorporate principle of full equality in their legal system.

Also it establishes tribunals and other institutions to ensure the protection of women against discrimination.

However, Jacqueline Anam, chairperson of Coalition of Violence against Women (COVAW), says that the lack of political commitment and gender blind macro-economic frameworks in the country is the main reason that has continued to deprive the women.

“Women continue to sight unequal gender relations that leave them in a subordinated position to be the norm rather than the exception,” she explains.
Achieving gender equity requires more than equality of opportunity and resources, says Anam, it requires equality of outcomes for women and men.

“The way the society has been constructed it’s designatory against women and that’s why they have not moved on and they will not move on unless there are structures in place to support gender and this is in regard to the women”, says Anam

And for this reason, she says that the movement for gender equality has for decades been closely linked to the human rights movement, while the concept of women’s participation in governance on an equal footing with the men dates back at least to the fourth century.

“Women want to influence the decisions that affect their lives and the lives of their families, the political economy and destiny of their communities and nations, a well as the structure of the international relations,” says Anam.

Institutional transformations are needed to create the enabling environment for the economic and political empowerment of gender and especially women.

Gender hierarchies can be seen in a range of practices and ideologies that are both as a result and cause further unequal power relations

The laws are also disignatory, change of rules such like the immigration rules that does not permit a married woman to leave the country without the institution getting the authority from her husband.

Anam reiterates that institutions should revoke such rules because there is no need for the women to tag along their husbands to get permission to do certain things.

“In Gender and power relations, the women should move beyond their laptops to the ground to capture the real issues that affect them as women,” she adds.

Why are we still having the imbalance, Jacqueline posses, if we are having done everything right?

Laws and policies should embrace the imbalances that the women have in this nation and to ensure that the women’s right are human rights.

The translation of human right instruments include various policy makers and adoption and implementation of affirmative action measures wherever there is a perceived need, even in areas that appear to have little relevance to politics.

Dr Muteshi also adds that the concept of equality between men and women must be the bases of advancing rights in Kenya underpin all actions.

“Women and men must have equality before the law, as laws must prohibit and eliminate both legal and systematic discrimination on the basis of sex,” she adds.

Ends

The price of Education

By Waguma Judy

Margaret Nailantei now 17 remembers with nostalgia; how her parents separated in order to secure her education.

“My mother had to sacrifice her marriage and happiness, because she believed that girls also deserved a chance in education,” she says

Nailantei, a form three student at Ilbisisil secondary school, Kajiado district, says that, had it not been for her mother’s brave move, she would have already been married off.

She explains that, after undergoing her initiation rites, her father strongly felt that she was of the right age to get married.

“My life has been a very hard one since I was young, my father did not want me to go to school, but my mother worked very hard to educate me,” she says.

Following the completion of class eight, my dad did not want me to proceed with my education, she says; he wanted me to get married.

My mother refused and I had to repeat class seven and that when I joined Ilbissil girls.

During this time I read gifted hands, a book by Ben Carson, who has been an inspiration in my life, I almost recognize my life with his, and in future my dream is to become a neurosurgeon just like him.

Being a Maasai girl is very hard, in a culture where women are still viewed as slaves and young girls being married off at very tender ages.

We have to undergo circumcision, which according to me has no meaning at all in our lives, and also be married off to strangers without your consent.

Education is important, but it made my parents separate, but I do not regret it for one day, because I believe that a day is coming when I will be able to support my mother and our community.

Miriam Kaipason, 17 years old from Ilbissil girls, is of the same view as Naintaei, her dream is however to become a lawyer to be able to fight for the Masaai women, to get education and wipe off the FGM completely from the Maasai community.

Kaipason, says that she was circumsisded when she was just 13 years old. “It Was the most painful thins ever, it is my wish today that no other woman undergoes through this process ever again.

She is just one of the many Kenyan girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation after the passage of the Children's Act law. Passed by Parliament in 2001, the Children's Act outlaws various forms of violation against children, including FGM, for females 18 and younger.

About 14 other countries in Africa have passed similar laws against FGM. Djibouti joined the group on Thursday by ratifying the African Union's Maputo Protocol on female genital mutilation, which requires its member states to ban the practice. But activists in Kenya--sometimes identified as a leader in the anti-FGM campaign--say the country still has a long way to go.

Elsewhere Charity Namunyok Paitah, a secretary in a local school in Kajiado disctrict, has her father to thank for her education. “Today I can reason with my father and tell him that I also need a piece of his land because I also have a right.

“What bothers me the most is that my age mates, girls I grew up with, today have over four children and walk after donkeys, fetch water and work like slaves while they are pregnant,” she says.

Young girls drop out of school after they go to this ceremonies, then they get scared to go back to school, after that they get married off, she says.

A woman in the massai land is still taken as a slave, a worker, a wife to the community, therefore she has to work extra hard to meet the family’s demands.

Pregnant mothers, due to their ignorance, fail to take their children to hospitals after giving birth, and end up getting polio and many other diseases that can be prevented.

Our leaders have failed us; since they are only concerned with their own issues but not the issue that affects the Maasai’s.

With basic education, the women can support the community, the standard of living will also change and people will slowly realize development in this area, as their minds would now be opened up, says Paitah.

Despite all this, Hellen Nkaissrey, the wife to the local Member of Parliament believes that another world is indeed possible for the maa community.

We are pastoralist, says Nkaissery, and we believe that it’s very beneficial, and the world should focus on it as an income.

We would wish our culture to be of value to us, and not act as a factor that demeans us instead.

Therefore we will push for policies to focus on indigenous communities to a certain level, and as money is disbursed, we would also demand for a fair share.
Education is important in our community, and the women should be given an ample opportunity to even the most basic education, because they are skillful.

Ends

A living testimony

By Waguma Judy

Lillian Atieno, a 33 year old mother of one, has a lot to say about herself, as a single mother, jobless, a trauma survivor and a woman living with HIV/Aids.

Diagnosed with the HIV virus in 2006, Lillian says that she has lived a life full of loneliness, guilt and bitterness.

Lillian learnt of her status, when her boyfriend for three years had just proposed.

“We were ready to move to the next step with my boyfriend, he wanted to marry me and I wanted the same for us.

For him, having protected sex, yet were to get married did not auger well, but I refused insisting that we have the HIV test first.

This issue of taking the test brought friction between us, he argued that he trusted me and therefore there was no reason for us to take the test.

But that was not the point, I wanted to start on a clean slate, and there was this constant conviction in me to take the test, and I believed it was ideal before we got married.

Had I known that the test would turn positive, maybe I would not have taken it, but all said and done, I am glad that we took it.

At first I could not believe it, I run further tests in different hospitals, but the results were the same, its then that I got convinced that my life will always be full of bad lucks.

Slowly, I went back to the memory lane of my life, I had taken good care of myself, and I could not understand how, my boyfriend had turned negative, but that’s because we had never engaged in unprotected sex.

Being the third born in a family of five, two brothers and two sisters, my dad had passed on when I was still very young, in Form three; I got pregnant with my son, Job, a teenage boy now.

The circumstances that led to my status began in 2004, December, I had gone to visit my first born sister in Kericho, I stayed there for a while, but come the 29th of the same month my other sister in Kisumu called and wanted me to visit her for the new year celebrations.

Since Kisumu, is not far from Kericho, I took my time preparing to go, as time dragged on, my eldest sister advised me to just stay.

Despite all this, come 5 o’clock that evening, I traveled, when I arrived in Kisumu, my sister and her husband decided we go out and have fun, when she told me there was a friend of theirs they wanted me to meet.

Immediately the guy got there I hated him, I did not like him at all, and in fact I even told my sister about my feelings, there was this thing about him that was not right.

At that point we were drinking, spirits , beer and mixing alcohol, we had lots of fun until the wee hours of morning.

We parted ways with the guy but agreed that we would meet the next day. The guy was so persistent, he came to my sister’s place very early in the morning, actually a few hours after we had parted, asking if he could take me out for lunch.

But my sister knowing how I felt about the guy, came to my rescue, and asked him to leave me to rest and we would meet again in the evening and have fun together. He agreed reluctantly but left anyway.

Come the evening, which was 30th, everyone was in the mood for closing the year, people were making merry all over the town, and we were not left behind either.

I was not in a very cheery mood, so I did not indulge my self in a lot of drinking, but my sister and the husband together with this guy really had fun, she was so drunk.

We went back home at around three in the morning, in the process my brother-in-law’s car broke down.

This guy, offered to drive us home in his car, at that moment, I was feeling so drunk, that worried me because I had not really drunk a lot, but I was not scared because I was in my sisters company, and therefore nothing could happen to me, so I thought.

I can barely remember the drive home, because I think I had passed out on our way home, I only came to my senses in the morning.

But something was totally a miss, my pants were down, my biker was also down, and I was still in the car, right in front of my sister’s house.

And the door leading to the house was also wide open, my head was throbbing, I had no idea why I was still in this guy’s car, my sister was not with me, neither was her husband, but sitting next to me was the one and only man I had hated so much before.

I had no idea what he had done to me, but it was a bit obvious, considering the state I was in, I turned round and asked him what he had done to me, and he went on to tell me that I was so sweet he just had to do it.

That he loved me so much, and could not just resist having me. I still could not understand this man at all; I kept throwing questions at him, why couldn't’t you even use a condom, why did you rape me?

It was no use asking those questions, the damage had already been done, I wore my pants and slowly went into the house, my sister who had woken up at that time was surprised to see me, to her, she thought we had both gotten in at the same time they did, but she was too drunk to remember anything.

Oscar, the guy who had just raped me, jumped into the conversation and told her that we had just come in as we had gone to spend the night somewhere else.

I couldn't’t say anything, I was feeling so embarrassed, I kept thinking of how my sister could take me once she learned what had happened, I could not just let her know, besides I knew that that would never happen again.

Even Though I did not want to conceal my situation, something was obviously wrong with me, I was in pain, my vagina was burning, I felt like I had cuts down there, and when I went to the toilet there was this burning sensation.

I brushed it off, thinking that probably it was because he had pushed his way into me; still the pain could not go away.

On the 1st of 2005, I traveled back to my sister’s place in Kericho, the pain was now too much, my lower abdomen was in fire, I had to tell someone about it, and so I decided to talk to my eldest sister.

She took me to hospital, but she insisted she had to give the guy a piece of her mind, we called my other sister in Kisumu who further called the guy to ask him why he raped me, but he denied everything.

At the hospital, the doctors found that I had been infected with Gonorrhea, I was given treatment, and the doctor further suggested that under the circumstances that I had gone through, I needed to go for an HIV test before it was too late.

Though the 72 hours had passed, the doctor suggested I needed to be sure that I was clean of any other virus, but I brushed it off, I convinced myself there was no way I could contract HIV.

I did not go for a test.

During all this time I had a boyfriend who supported me all the way; he was always with me, a shoulder to lean on, he helped me move towns just as I had been transferred.

We were so committed to each other, but we were practicing safe sex, he could come over to visit and counsel me.

During one such visit, my boyfriend proposed to me, he wanted us to move to the next level, he wanted to marry me, make me his wife, and so he started the arrangements.

First in the list was to stop using protection on me, and then he wanted to visit my parents.

But at the mention of this my heart skipped, I don’t know why, but I asked him to let us go for an HIV test first before we do anything.

That surprised him, he argued that he trusted me and he thought that I trusted him in return, and there was no need for us to do a test, but after so much said, he agreed to accompany me to a voluntary counselling center (VCT).

This was all in 2006, the month of April, the counselor told as all that we should expect once he had done the test. My boyfriend was the first to be tested, his results were negative, then I was next, as we waited, my heart was literally in my mouth.

The lines were three, a conviction that I was HIV positive, I was shocked, my head was going in circles, It couldn't be, how ,yet I have been taking care of myself all this years?

I had to do another test; I just had to confirm if I was really positive, and so I did another test, the results were the same, I was HIV positive.

To make it worse, the company I was working for had closed down, I was now jobless, with a new condition, and my son, he was my biggest worry, I gave birth while in form three, but my eldest sister was taking care of him.

My boyfriend stayed with me, he gave me support, and even continued to have sex with me, but using a condom.

Though the risks were still high, I wanted him to move on with his life, but he stayed on, one day as we were having sex, the condom broke and he had to be put on PEP for close to one month.

I think the risks became a reality to him at that time, and also I think he just wanted to make sure I did not do anything stupid, so slowly he pulled away until I never had from him again.

I sought answers from another hospital, I went to Aga khan hospital to get tested again; I thought that something could happen to change my status; I could not believe it when even there the results were the same.

Therefore I decided to run tests to make sure that other my organs were fine, and I was functioning well. I spent all the money I had saved doing various tests at the hospital, and they were damn expensive, they did not even sympathize with me even after the doctors knew that I was jobless.

At the end of it all I am glad that I run those tests, because now I know, my other organs are fine, though I have not started taking any ARV, or therapies.

I never told any of my family members, not even my sisters know, the one staying in Kisumu later died, and the husband confided in me that she died of HIV related diseases, even then, I did not convey my status.

I believe that they are still ignorant of HIV and I fear being discriminated upon, besides I don’t have a job, and I would hate the situation whereby they will be forced to take care of me.

So I am waiting to get a job, then I will disclose my status to them. The hardest part, I think will be talking to my son, he is the reason why I live everyday, I have tried so many bad things to end my life, but the thought of him makes me stop on my tracks.

Although sometimes I think that I partly contributed to my situation, I believe that God has a way, and I have stopped drinking alcohol.

Ends

72 hours-Stop and Think!

Several woman are raped on a daily basis, some die while others get infected with the HIV virus, despite faciliteies being available in hospitals.

Dabbed '72 hour's, and commomly known as the Post Exposure Prophylaxis(PEP), it has been noted countrywide that most young women are not aware of these services.

'Had I known of the 72 hours, maybe I would be HIV negative today, says Lillian Atieno, a single mother of one,a survivor of rape and HIV positive.

'After the rape ordeal, I contracted a venereal disease, I was treated but nobody ever told me about the 72 hours, I have gone to school, but I still had no clue what it was,"she says.

"This just shows you how many women will continue to die, whether leanered or not,since women are still not aware of these noble services in our hospitals, she adds.


Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is an emergency medical response that can be used to protect individuals exposed to HIV. PEP consists of medication, laboratory tests and counselling.

Ideally PEP should be initiated within 2-24 hours (and no later than 48-72 hours) of possible exposure to HIV, and must continue for approximately four weeks.

Young women face various obstacles in keeping themselves safe from violence as well as gaining access to treatment and support structures.

It is in this aspect that a group of young women have lodged a campaign dabbed ‘72 hours of Action: Stop and think’.

The young women, are now lobbying for their fellows to seek help within 72 hours of rape or violence, as it has been discovered that in spite of the available prophylactic measures, many cases of rape go unreported and many women succumb to their misery

Saida Ali, the Director of Young women Leadership Institute (YWLI), attributes this to the victims' ignorance of their rights and procedures available to assist them.

For Saida, the reasons are more complex. "Victims hide the crime in shame; they feel guilty and blame themselves because it has not only psychological implications for them but also social consequences.

“Society has such a bad conception of rape that it puts the blame on the victim and not the perpetrator,” adds Saida.

Instead of receiving the sympathy and help that their misfortune cries out for, victims are usually accused of having tempted the perpetrators, and therefore deserve their fate.

"For the fear of being termed as having loose morals, many prefer to hide away what they consider their shame," says Saida.

Regardless of the consequences of rape for the victim, most people generally tend to advise the victim to keep the matter to herself and, particularly in the event of her being young; they feared that if it become known, then they would not find someone to marry.

On the other hand, other young women have been married off after a rape ordeal, others have gotten pregnant and some have found that they are infected with various sexually transmitted diseases, and that’s why the 72 hours campaign has to beef up, to give women a chance, says Hadija Ali, a community leader in Korogocho slums.

“Every woman’s fear is to be raped, no one is prepared for it, but all we are saying is that if it ever happened to you, remember that’s it’s not your fault, and that you should seek responsibility for your life and look for help,” says Ali.

Misconceptions are damaging to the victim's fragile equilibrium, instilling in her a misplaced sense of guilt. Not only that, but, depending on her personality, a woman who had been raped might lose her self-esteem, appetite, or sexual drive, and even attempt suicide.

However, with psychological assistance, victims could be helped to regain their self-confidence and express their anger against the perpetrators instead of turning in on themselves, reiterated Saida.

She advises the women not to wash themselves for evidence purposes, and that within the 72 hours, the woman has a higher chance of not being infected with STD’s and also not getting pregnant.

Carry the materials for proof in a khaki paper bag, so that it does not erase any evidence, and after seeing the doctor, this should be carried to the police station.

It’s also of help to the victim that she does this within the 72 hours, while their minds are still fresh, not to leave out the details.

It’s only this way that we will be able to fight this scourge, and make the perpetrators accountable, adds Myra Karani, YWLI.

Kinoti Kathambi, a trustee of YWLI, also says that women should be interested in reporting rape because if they are ever raped or a friend of theirs is, they would know how to report it and what to do about it.

Rapists should be brought to justice, she says, so don't be afraid to report it. Bringing the rapists to justice can keep them off the streets and not be able rape again.

It has also been established that women still do not feel very good having to tell the police their experience word for word. That makes them not want to report it.
Another thing is when you report rape, the police have to take important procedures like finding out evidence, get a report from the doctor, go to the scene of crime, and find him and find out where he was.

If it were to happen, if you were raped then the message was, please run to the nearest hospital, then you could save something, you could prevent that unwanted pregnancy, the STD and be able to go through counseling.


Ends